Welcome to Millennial Of The Week! This is an interview series conducted by Millennial Community – we are a group of like-minded young people who talk about life as a millennial, work on projects & ideas that matter and challenge the status quo of the world we live in.
This week we are talking to Richard Potter, a New Zealander who moved to London in 2014. Richard is studying neuroscience and helps a number of mental health focussed organisations with their strategy, processes and marketing. He also writes for Say Yes More and has a side project focused on the creation and promotion of poetry. With a passion for creative and poetic writing he hosted our first online workshop on writing poetry this month on Millennial Community! Creativity is an important aspect of Richard’s life – one of his main goals is to create and share work as often as possible so that others are inspired to do the same: He knows how hard this can be to do but also how rewarding it is, for yourself and for those who you reach through your works.
Are you a member of any online communities? If so, what made you join?
Just Millennial Community – I joined it so that I would have a supportive framework as I was contemplating my future direction. Terri Witherden recommended Ramona to me: her advice and support (and that of Millennial Community) has been invaluable.
What are – in your opinion – the most important skills a millennial needs to cultivate, and why?
Adaptability: the world is changing at an ever more rapid rate so we need to change even faster. My view is that having a static approach to life, or a static definition of success, is no longer viable and is incapable of leading to fulfilment. The ability to recognise and implement opportunities for cross-pollination: the ease with which we can connect with people around the world gives us a fantastic opportunity to apply insights from multiple disciplines to the problems and obstacles that we face. The knowledge, insight and talent that we possess as a species is a unified and deeply connected whole rather than a series of self contained compartments.
Self-awareness: other people can only know us as deeply as we know ourselves. We all need to create time for self-reflection so that we can achieve sufficient clarity about who we are to formulate and implement a clear purpose for the various stages of our lives.
Open-mindedness: it is important to seek out and evaluate views and opinions that deviate from our own. If all the feedback we receive is reinforcement of our own conclusions, we may become blinded to gaps in our understanding or the need for refinement of our analysis. I do not believe that anyone can be right all of the time.
How are you practicing those skills in your own life?
I am varying my skill set and knowledge base by studying neuroscience and increasing my experience of strategy, operations and marketing. I have a daily practice of Vedic meditation in order to boost my perception and self-awareness. I have and will continue to connect with people from a variety of cultures and backgrounds to avoid unsafe homogeneity in the views to which I am exposed.
What is your personal definition of success?
I was thinking about this topic recently and I decided to focus on what my metrics were for measuring success. This was prompted in part by my experience of volunteer social media marketing: we were doing a lot of Facebook posts and keeping track of how many people each post had “reached” but I realised this told us very little about whether people were actually engaging with our posts. Number of people “reached” wasn’t really a very meaningful metric. From this I realised I would need to have meaningful measures of success as guide points (among other things, like values) during times of transition.
I made a list of what I thought my metrics of success were and then made a list of things I had noticed were not on my list of metrics.
High on the metrics list were 1. Adding Value and 2. Being True to Myself. Financial things (i.e. how much I was earning and how much I was spending) came further down. They’re really only on the list at all because I need to avoid running out of money in order to be successful.
When I came to make the list of things that had not appeared in my list of metrics, I noticed that it did not include things like How Big My House Is or What My Job Title Is. Unlike the items that were on my list, these things (at least for me) are not good metrics to adopt because they change very rarely, if at all.
If I were to focus on these sorts of things as my metrics of success, I would be left with a rather static definition, rather than a dynamic one that fosters a mindset of continual personal growth and development. That isn’t what I want right now, plus I don’t think it is the right mindset to have in the world with which we’ve been gifted.
What are YOU seeking help in at the moment?
I’m seeking more opportunities to help people with strategy, operations and marketing, as well as freelance writing work.
What excites you about being a millennial?
The vast plethora of opportunities we have to live in a way that we find meaningful and fulfilling.
Quick Fire Questions
My current passion project
The Poem Whisperer
I am most grateful for
All the amazing people who I’ve been privileged to connect with and who have helped me during my journey so far.
One of my role models (and why)
My Dad, for living a balanced and courageous life
Best advice I ever received
Just Do It
My biggest challenge
Dealing with anxiety
Being resourceful means ___
Being able to rise to challenges, make the most out of opportunities and recognise both in time to take appropriate action.
